“and every single year “I’m drowning in my tears…”

The music in the room was rich, deep, and buzzing in his ears. Li Jinyu hadn’t heard the second half of Ye Meng’s sentence; he only vaguely made out two words: “le ni” (took you).

Given her direct personality, he could guess what she had said.

For a moment, he didn’t know how to react. He looked at her with a mixture of anger and amusement, his eyes showing little emotion. With headphones hanging around his neck, leaning against the doorframe, he lowered his head and silently stared at her for a while in the depressing, low music. Without turning, his peripheral vision could sense that under the old phoenix tree, Cheng Kairan had angrily thrown down his cigarette and was about to charge over without a word, but was firmly held in place by his two level-headed subordinates, each grabbing one of his arms.

Technically speaking, this was his first kiss, if one didn’t count the one stolen by the neighbor’s older sister when he was six. But he didn’t want Ye Meng to know that he had never even had a proper relationship. This didn’t fit his current persona at all. During those years in America, he had been too young, only thirteen or fourteen. Smoking, drinking, and going to bars, but little interest in girls. Even when he later developed an interest, after Li Siyang finished his college entrance exams, he returned under Li Lingbai’s watchful eye and resumed being a good boy.

“You want to see me get beaten up by Cheng Kairan, don’t you?” he said with a cold laugh.

Ye Meng displayed an open smile. She wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but she was pure and moving. Her speech was direct and clear, pleasant to the ear, without the accent of small-town women, her pronunciation standard and precise: “I’ll clear things up with him. If he touches you, hit him back. If you kill him, I’ll go to jail for you.”

Li Jinyu looked at her without moving, and finally, his gaze swept over the seething Cheng Kairan behind her. He turned his head away indifferently and said: “That’s cruel to Cheng Kairan. He’s still helping you find the truth.”

Ye Meng nodded but didn’t intend to continue the deep conversation, showing rare self-mockery: “I’ve never been a perfect person. I’m selfish, greedy…”

And lustful, Li Jinyu silently added in his heart.

“But I want to make you happy,” Ye Meng said frankly and directly.

Li Jinyu was stunned. He couldn’t describe the feeling, as if a frozen corner within him was being softened by something.

Now Ye Meng became gentlemanly, “If you’re not going to hold me accountable for what just happened, I’ll leave now.”

“Hold you accountable for what?”

“I kissed you without your consent. Honestly, this counts as sexual harassment,” she was quite self-aware, taking out her phone and handing it to him, “Do you need compensation, or do you want to call the police?”

She was really… perplexing.

The music outside had changed to another song, still very melancholic. Li Jinyu turned sideways, headphones still around his neck, his back against the wall, hands in his pockets. He lowered his head in silence for a moment, then pointed his chin toward the door, not looking at her, and said: “Go.”

Ye Meng sat in the car, her expression far from happy. On the contrary, she was extremely frustrated. She had never been such an impulsive person. Even when she acted boldly, she was still someone who left room for herself. She didn’t know what had come over her just now, leaving even herself confused.

If Li Jinyu had called the police, she might be sitting in a police car now. Thinking of this, a cold sweat broke out on her forehead. If she were taken away in a police car as a harassment offender, she would have no choice but to return to Beijing with a thick skin and continue being Gou Kai’s flatterer.

It wasn’t that she was afraid of anything; she had never been bound by discipline. She just feared that the old lady would faint from anger.

“You like that boy?” Cheng Kairan finally could not help but speak.

The two subordinates sat in the front, quietly driving, occasionally glancing at the two in the rearview mirror, always alert to the strange atmosphere. After a while, Ye Meng came to her senses, turned her head to look out the window, and corrected him as if she hadn’t heard: “He’s older than you. Give me a cigarette.”

Now closing her eyes, her entire body was filled with Li Jinyu’s scent. His lips were thin, with a clear and distinct shape, but unexpectedly soft.

Cheng Kairan threw a cigarette at her with full resentment, landing it in her hand, his eyes contemptuous as he said: “I’m not gossiping behind his back, but Li Jinyu is not a good man. He’s despicable. All the gossipy women in town are wrapped around his finger. At that bar where he sings, just the other day I caught him having a quickie with a woman in the bathroom.”

“I know,” Ye Meng took a puff of the cigarette, exhaling the smoke lightly, her eyes narrowing slightly, “Anything else?”

Cheng Kairan found this version of Ye Meng too captivating, and he immediately felt powerless. He was the most humble secret admirer. He thought he had disguised it well, but at this moment, he inexplicably felt that the woman before him must know everything.

“I could expose his dirt for three days and three nights without finishing,” Cheng Kairan didn’t want Ye Meng to think he harbored malice toward Li Jinyu without reason, so he calmed his expression and said sincerely, “When this guy goes crazy, he goes crazy. No one can stop him. You think he’s so good to the old lady now, but he’s not filial. When he first came here a few years ago, he got into a fight and nearly crippled someone who’s still lying in the hospital now. The old lady paid hundreds of thousands in compensation to keep him out of prison. Otherwise, he’d just be a convict now.”

Could Li Jinyu have lied to her? When he said his mother had given the old lady a sum of money, was it not donated to the welfare institute but used for his compensation?

“Young and reckless, who hasn’t made mistakes?” Ye Meng said dismissively as she tapped away some ash.

Cheng Kairan’s suppressed anger rose again, like a balloon about to explode, and his words turned vicious: “Fine, you insist on going after him? With so many decent men in town, you don’t choose, you want a man who has no money, no influence, who’s nothing but a pretty face, worthless in every way, living like a dog?”

Ye Meng smiled, saying lightly: “Yes, I’d choose him over you.”

Cheng Kairan looked at her in astonishment, his mind suddenly blank. She knew everything. He thought he had concealed it well; he thought she would pretend ignorance forever. Now, for Li Jinyu’s sake, she had finally made it clear.

The scenery became increasingly familiar. Ye Meng extinguished her cigarette and asked the subordinate to stop the car at the intersection, though of course, the subordinate didn’t listen to her. Ye Meng took out a bank card and a business card from her bag and handed them to Cheng Kairan, “Kaikai, go to Beijing and get the scar on your face removed. This doctor can help you. His technique is very good. I had a colleague with a similar condition to yours, and now he looks like a normal person.”

Cheng Kairan didn’t move for a long time. He didn’t take it; he felt that if he took this card, everything between him and Ye Meng would truly be settled once and for all. After a long while, he moved his lips: “What do you mean?”

Ye Meng pushed forward a bit and said again: “Don’t bother with my mother’s matter anymore. Live your own life well. Between us, from now on, no one owes anyone anything. My mother’s death has nothing to do with you. If it has to be blamed on someone, it can only be blamed on me, for not being a boy.”

“You want to cut ties with me because of him?” Cheng Kairan couldn’t believe it and raised his voice sharply to confirm once more, “Is that it?”

“Because he doesn’t want to offend you, he always rejects me,” Ye Meng casually warned, “Kaikai, if you dare to touch him, you know me. When I go crazy, no one can stop me either. If anyone causes trouble for him, I’ll hold you responsible.”

Cheng Kairan knew Ye Meng very well. She truly spoiled her boyfriends. In high school, she was with a very handsome junior. It wasn’t obvious how much Ye Meng liked this junior, but she pampered him as if he was the only one in the world, and no one dared to offend him. Later, when they broke up, she was truly cold-hearted. She still went about eating, drinking, and having fun as usual, never appearing to be sad. As for that junior, who seemed quite proud at first and wouldn’t pay attention to anyone, in the end, he was the one who couldn’t let go and sought reconciliation.

So, she and Li Jinyu were at most just a case of intense passion. After it burned out, it would be over.

Yang Tianwei was selected for the youth training camp, an unprecedented opportunity, and he was about to go to Beijing for training. Ye Meng’s well-intentioned action had backfired—the old lady now had no one to take care of her. Li Jinyu didn’t want to spend money on a caretaker, so he took care of her day and night himself. Plus, after transferring to a different ward, the costs would be much higher than before. Apart from selling himself, he really couldn’t think of any quick way to make money.

“Out of money, aren’t you? In a difficult spot?” the old lady said with a schadenfreude expression as she munched on a banana. “I said not to treat it, but you insisted. If you don’t have the skills, why take on the job? Do you still think you’re that little young master who can just reach out for clothes and open your mouth for food?”

“Eat your banana,” Li Jinyu was considering whether to write an ad selling himself as he looked at his phone, snorting disdainfully, “I was never a ‘young master who could reach out for clothes and open his mouth for food.’ There’s no young master in the world as unlucky as me.”

The old lady offered a suggestion, “Why don’t I just jump from here and end it all in one go.”

Li Jinyu responded absent-mindedly without looking up, “Jumping from here won’t kill you. If you want to jump, go to the roof.”

“Heartless,” the old lady cursed, but her face was still smiling. Ever since the test report came out, her temper had improved a lot, as if things had suddenly settled. Once the remaining days became dry numbers, she seemed to be less irritable about life.

The old lady bit the last piece of banana, carefully folded the peel back to its original shape, threw it into the trash bin, and said in a childlike tone: “I only have one wish now.”

“I’m not Aladdin’s lamp. Don’t make wishes to me,” Li Jinyu had a bad feeling and immediately shut her down.

The old lady ignored him and continued: “Find a girl and get married. Don’t always face this old woman. And find a place to move out soon. You can rent a place in town, go where there are more young people, and don’t stay in a retirement community. And if the old lady upstairs brings you things, don’t open the door. She’s not a good old thing, she wants to find herself a young husband and has been eyeing you for a long time.”

Li Jinyu raised an eyebrow, “Wouldn’t that be perfect? The old lady upstairs is over eighty. When she goes, all the money and the house will be mine. Then we can connect the upstairs and downstairs, and get you a big villa.”

The old lady knew this kid was just being glib, saying anything that came to mind. In reality, he was very cautious of that old lady. She didn’t bother to continue and pretended to have a headache, driving him out of the hospital room.

Once Li Jinyu left, the old lady sneakily crawled out from under the covers, took out her phone, and carefully identified the numbers on the senior phone to call the hospital’s volunteer caregiver.

Ye Meng never expected to encounter Li Jinyu’s grandmother at the entrance of the community.

Today she had originally planned to buy a car, but she nearly drove the salesperson mad during the test drive. In the end, she decided to find an instructor to practice her driving skills first. Although Ning Sui town was small, driving was necessary to go anywhere these days. If she were to work in the future, not having a car would be even more troublesome.

The old lady saw her and excitedly called her name, asking the caregiver to push her over: “Ye Meng!”

Ye Meng hurriedly walked over, took over from the caregiver, and asked while bending down: “Grandma Li, how did you get out of the hospital?”

The old lady waved her hand: “I’m not surnamed Li anymore! My son married into another family, so Li Jinyu takes his mother’s surname. Even if he hadn’t married into another family, he wouldn’t take my surname. My surname is Diao. You can call me Grandma Diao, or more directly, you can call me Grandma like Li Jinyu does.”

Ye Meng was greatly amused by this old lady. She pushed her slowly toward the park ahead, fearlessly half-jokingly saying: “Then I’ll call you Grandma!”

The old lady let out a long, contented “Ai,” as if the call had reached her heart, making her extremely happy, almost bouncing in her wheelchair.

Along the way were strolling pedestrians, coming and going, shoulder to shoulder. The three moved through the crowd. The caregiver smiled and made a digression: “The old lady is happy to see you. She had a long face earlier. An outsider might have thought I was bullying her.”

Before Ye Meng could respond, the old lady immediately interrupted and said to Ye Meng, “Ye Meng, push me to sit by the lake. I haven’t been here before. Later, give Li Jinyu a call and ask him to pick me up.”

…

When Ye Meng called Li Jinyu, he was actually near the lake, but sitting across from him was a wealthy woman—not the kind of modestly well-off like Ye Meng, but truly wealthy, owning several beauty salons in town with annual profits exceeding a million.

From her physique, she also appeared very wealthy. Her gaze was both critical and satisfied as she looked him up and down, “Can you do it?”

Li Jinyu couldn’t stand this sticky gaze. In his heart were ten thousand alpacas. Why did life have to push him to this point?

Following this, the phone on the table suddenly vibrated. He immediately felt relieved. Normally, he would never answer such an unfamiliar number, but he promptly picked it up and said coldly: “Sorry, Sister Li, I need to take this call.”

“Hello?”

He held the phone to his ear. Sister Li was like a huge behemoth, blocking all his sight. He had nowhere to look except to turn his head toward the window. And thus, at this moment, all the coincidences in the world occurred—

Ye Meng, pushing his grandmother in a wheelchair, with her phone held to her ear, simultaneously met his gaze.

Through the receiver came her familiar voice, “It’s me, Ye Meng.”

Her gaze instinctively swept over the woman opposite Li Jinyu, then returned to this self-degrading man. Sister Li was too famous in this town; Ye Meng couldn’t help but think too much.

“Li Jinyu, are you a male escort?”

“Your mother,” he swore, “Hand model, hand model, understand?”